Thursday, September 8, 2011

Let’s try this again.
I wrote most of these instructions up yesterday and accidentally deleted
them. I was so sick, they were so
detailed. O-well… Back to the drawing
board. I usually do not write a lot of quilting
instructions so please let me know if you find any errors or have any
questions.

HOW I CUT WITH MY ACCUQUILT GO

I used the small AccuQuilt Go Value Die for this quilt. It works with the AccuQuilt Go Baby but I don't have a Go Baby just yet. I usually cut a maximum of 4 layers of fabric on my
AccuQuilt Go. It just works best for me
to help in making sure the cuts stay as accurate as possible. Also, I always line up my fabric edge (you
know the one with the manufacturer’s name on it) parallel with the long edge of
the die. There are also some great tips
on the AccuQuilt Go and Yahoo Group.

I usually cut or rip my fabric into strips and then I accordion
fold it over closely over the one die needed.
My strips are just a little bit wider than the item trying to be cut. This allows me to minimize my scraps.

And before I know it, I have a whole pile of cut out blocks.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

Center Quilt Blocks

240 Light 2 1/2" half square triangles

240 Dark 2 1/2" half square triangles

30 4 1/2" light squares

30 4 1/2" dark squares

Border & Corner blocks

16 light 2 1/2"half square triangles

16 dark 2 1/2" half square triangles

border strips (2) 2" dark strips and (1)
1.5" light strip

PREPARING THE BLOCKS

First step is to pair up all 240 dark half square triangles
with your 240 light half square triangles and sew right sides together. During this time, I feed them one by one into
the sewing machine and then snip separate them later. Iron each one open
pressing the seam to the dark fabric.

Repeat the steps above with the half square triangles for
the border . Match one light with one
dark and sew right sides together. Iron
each one open pressing the seam to the dark fabric.

PUTTING THE BLOCKS TOGETHER

Now, it is all about direction on the blocks. There is really one base block to this quilt
that when repeated creates the star.
Make 24 full blocks and then we'll make 6 blocks without the final seam.

In image1 you can see the direction placements for the half
square triangle blocks. We'll start
working in the top left section, place 4 of your half square blocks to match
the image. Make sure you keep track of which side needs to be sewn to keep the blocks in the direction originally laid out. Sew TL1 to TR1 to make a row
1 in image2 (below) and then sew TL2 to TR2 to make row 2 in image2 (below). Ignore the 4 1/2 inch blocks for now. In the bottom right quadrants of Image1,
position 4 more half square triangle blocks in the right directions to match
and then sew BL1 to BR1 to form row 3 in image2 (below) and then BL2 to BR2 to
form row 4 in image 2 (below).

Image1

Image2

Position your rows to match the layout in image2 above. Now sew Row 1 to Row 2 with matching up the
center seams. Once completed, the block
will match block1 in image3 below. Move
on to sew Row 3 to Row 4 to create block2 in image3 below.

image3

image4

To finish the block, match the positioning in image3 and sew
Block1 to a Dark 4.5” plain block. Then
sew a light 4.5” plain block to Block2.
Finally, sew the two block top half to the two block bottom half to
complete the block as in image4. Repeat this process to create 24 of these individual
blocks. There are 3 more blocks to complete. However, on these 3 blocks, do not sew the
top half to the bottom half. This will
leave 24 completed blocks and 6 halfs.

ASSEMBLING THE QUILT CENTER

Then assemble each of the 24 full blocks to match image5
below. I usually complete the rows first
and then assemble the rows. All you need
to do is make sure your blocks match the layout in image4 below. You basically rotate the individual block to
match up the “feathers” of each star.
Also, I took a lot of time to match up the seams and pinning.

image5

The
six half blocks will be going on the right and left sides of the center
quilt. Assemble the half blocks to match
the layout below in image6. 3 half blocks for each side. Then attach the two rows to the left and
right of the center quilt. Be careful to
match up all the different seams. I like
to use pins to make sure my seams line up.

Trish Thank you for the great detail for the Hunter star quilt. I think I will make mine in Hunter green for my granddaughter Hunter. Thank you so much for all the work it took you to write up this pattern.Sandy K

Excellent tutorial Trish. Love it. This definitely goes into my list of favorites. And, I will gladly give a shout out on my blog as well as to my list of quilters with Modern Tools (AccuQuilt) that I maintain on my blog. Thanks for sharing. Great job!

This is a great tutorial. Thank you. I have always wanted to make this and I had lots of 'bonus half-square triangles' to work with from another project, so I got right to work. I had a difficult time keeping the position of the HSTs in order, and I have never unpicked so many stitches in my life!! But, my efforts were well rewarded when I finished! Thank you.

I have a question are you using all three shapes on the die? Or just the top two.I was thing about getting the Hunter star die but it has different shapes on it.Your way looks easy and I already have the die you used.

Thank you so much for these instructions! I have been wanting the hunters star die but didn't want to pay that much right now. When I came across your quilt using the value dies I was so excited. Now I can make it without buying more dies. Thank you!

I didn't realize how this block was made. I was wondering what I could make with the value die without having to purchase something else. Thanks for showing me how to make such a great block with those simple shapes!